India leads the way for us all: India's Attempt to Reinvent E-Commerce Could Threaten Amazon

"India wants to create a new sort of public utility: an Amazon killer.

Success -- or even a decent attempt -- would represent an existential threat to the expansion plans of U.S. Big Tech abroad.

It also could be a model for other developing nations that want to leverage the potential of e-commerce, digital payments and other online services without handing the keys to a few big technology giants.

A little over a month ago, the Indian government's Open Network for Digital Commerce, or ONDC, went live in Bengaluru, the country's technology hub. ONDC is an interoperable network that aims to help small retailers replicate the reach of private e-commerce platforms -- i.e., loosen the grip of Amazon.com and Walmart-backed Flipkart. It will enable the display of products and services from all participating e-commerce platforms in search results across all apps on the network.

All of this comes as India has been aggressively pursuing antitrust cases against large U.S. tech companies including Meta Platforms, Google and Amazon.

The jury is still very much out on how successful ONDC will be. But the network's launch sends strong signals about how India, which boasts the world's second-largest population of internet users, wants to cultivate its internet economy: It would prefer a competitive, decentralized model built atop digital public goods.

That is starkly different from the U.S. model centered on natural monopolies, often feeding off advertising revenue, or from China's highly censored and protected model.

Morgan Stanley sees ONDC as potentially a significant threat to established brands and to platforms in sectors such as ride-hailing and food delivery.

The pillar of this vision is India Stack, a set of software tools developed by government agencies and nonprofits that aims to unlock the potential of secure identity verification, e-commerce and payments for the population as a whole.

One example: Over 90% of India's population has now signed up for Aadhaar, the biometric identity-verification system that is a key component of India Stack, according to the Indian government. By 2019, around half had already linked their bank account to their ID, which can then be used to make digital payments through India Stack's Unified Payments Interface, according to the International Monetary Fund.

That, the IMF notes, has in turn helped facilitate the rise of new companies such as Jio, the telecommunications company that has significantly expanded data access across India. Other India Stack elements include the Open Credit Enablement Network, which aims to codify a common set of credit standards for borrowers, lenders and fintech intermediaries.

To be sure, a successful open architecture for e-commerce faces major challenges. People buy from platforms such as Amazon in part because the company invests in trying to ensure products are legitimate and will arrive in good shape and in a timely manner. When things go very wrong, customers have various forms of recourse including the courts. Building that sort of accountability and reliability into an open access, decentralized platform may prove quite difficult.

But success would add up to a major threat to the business model of dominant U.S.-backed digital commerce companies such as Amazon -- particularly if elements of India Stack are then exported to other large developing nations wary of U.S. tech giants' clout.

India Stack and ONDC bear close watching -- both for tech investors and their critics in government and civil society at home and abroad.” [1]

European Union should repeat this India’s action. To develop good artificial intelligence systems for our companies we should keep the data produced by us for us. Data is new oil, isn’t it?

1. India's Attempt to Reinvent E-Commerce Could Threaten Amazon
Mandavia, Megha. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 09 Nov 2022: B.14.

 

„Nvidia“ Kinijai siūlo sankcijoms atsparų lustą

  „HONKONGAS – „Nvidia Corp.“ klientams Kinijoje pradėjo siūlyti alternatyvą aukščiausios klasės lustui, kuriam taikomi JAV eksporto apribojimai, po to, kai naujosios taisyklės kėlė grėsmę šiai Amerikos bendrovei prarasti šimtus milijonų dolerių pajamų.

 

    „Nvidia“ teigė, kad naujasis grafikos apdorojimo lustas A800 atitinka JAV apribojimus lustams, kurie gali būti eksportuojami į Kiniją pagal naujas taisykles, paskelbtas praėjusį mėnesį. Lustas buvo pradėtas gaminti trečiąjį ketvirtį, pranešė bendrovė.

 

    A800 pakeičia A100 – lustą, kurį serveriuose ir dirbtinio intelekto programose plačiai naudoja Kinijos technologijų milžinai, įskaitant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. ir Baidu Inc.

 

    Pagal praėjusį ketvirtadienį „Nvidia“ kanalų platintojams išsiųstą atmintinę, „A800“ turi tokį patį skaičiavimo našumą, tačiau siauresnį sujungimo dažnių juostos plotį, lusto pajėgumą siųsti ir gauti duomenis iš kitų lustų, o tai labai svarbu, mokant didelio masto AI modelius ar kuriant. superkompiuterius.

 

    „A800 atitinka aiškų JAV vyriausybės sumažėjusios eksporto kontrolės testą ir negali būti užprogramuotas jį viršyti“, – teigė bendrovė. Apie „Nvidia“ planus pasiūlyti naują lustą anksčiau pranešė „Reuters“.

 

    Prekybos departamento atstovas sakė, kad lustai, mažesni už naujausiuose JAV apribojimuose nurodytas našumo ribas, gali būti eksportuojami į Kiniją, tačiau teigė, kad bendrovės, sudarydamos sandorius su Kinijos subjektais, turėtų atlikti išsamų patikrinimą.

 

    Naujasis „Nvidia“ lustas yra atsakas į Bideno administracijos griežtas naujas taisykles, ribojančias amerikietiškų lustų technologijų eksportą į Kiniją, kuriomis, pasak JAV pareigūnų, siekiama sulėtinti Kinijos karinę pažangą. Praeitą mėnesį Prekybos departamento paskelbtos taisyklės užblokavo daugybę puslaidininkių technologijų, įskaitant pažangią lustų gamybos įrangą ir pažangiausius lustus, naudojamus dirbtiniam intelektui ir superkompiuteriams, gabenimą į Kiniją be licencijos.

 

    Šios taisyklės išplėtė ankstesnius apribojimus, taikomus Nvidia A100 eksportui į Kiniją.

 

    Rugpjūčio mėnesį bendrovė paskelbė, kad A100 lustų eksporto apribojimai jai kainuos 400 mln. dolerių. Maždaug ketvirtadalis „Nvidia“ 26,9 mlrd. dolerių pajamų per paskutinus metus ateidavo iš Kinijos ir Honkongo, sako įmonė.

 

    Anot žmonių, susipažinusių su šiuo klausimu, bendrovė ruošiasi didelei naujojo lusto paklausai, nes bendrovė jau trečiadienį pradės teikti kainas Kinijoje, sakė žmonės. Tikimasi, kad siuntos prasidės artimiausiomis savaitėmis, o potencialūs pirkėjai yra JAV bendrovės, tokios, kaip „Dell Technologies Inc.“, kurių produktai parduodami Kinijoje, sakė šie žmonės. „Dell“ atstovas patvirtino, kad bendrovė tikrina „Nvidia“ A800 pasiūlymą." [1]

1.  Business News: Nvidia Offers China a Sanctions-Proof Chip
Strumpf, Dan; Hao, Karen; Huang, Raffaele. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 09 Nov 2022: B.3.

Nvidia Offers China a Sanctions-Proof Chip

"HONG KONG -- Nvidia Corp. has begun offering an alternative to a high-end chip hit with U.S. export restrictions to customers in China, after the new rules threatened to cost the American company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Nvidia said the new graphics-processing chip, the A800, meets U.S. restrictions on chips that can be exported to China under new rules rolled out last month. The chip went into production in the third quarter, the company said.

The A800 replaces the A100, a chip widely used in servers and artificial-intelligence applications by China's tech giants including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc. 

According to a memo Nvidia sent to its channel distributors last Thursday, the A800 has the same computational performance but a narrower interconnect bandwidth, the capacity of a chip to send and receive data from other chips, crucial for training large-scale AI models or building supercomputers.

"The A800 meets the U.S. government's clear test for reduced export control and cannot be programmed to exceed it," the company said. Nvidia's plans to offer the new chip were earlier reported by Reuters.

A Commerce Department spokesman said chips below the performance limits outlined in the latest U.S. restrictions were permitted for export to China, but said companies should conduct due diligence when transacting with Chinese entities.

Nvidia's new chip is a response to the Biden administration's sweeping new rules restricting exports of American chip technology to China, which U.S. officials say is aimed at slowing the country's military advance. The rules unveiled by the Commerce Department last month blocked an array of semiconductor technology from being shipped to China without a license, including advanced chip-manufacturing equipment and cutting-edge chips used for AI and supercomputing.

Those rules expanded on earlier restrictions placed on Nvidia's China exports of the A100.

In August, the company disclosed that export restrictions on its A100 chips would cost it $400 million in lost sales. About a quarter of Nvidia's $26.9 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year came from China and Hong Kong, the company said.

The company is preparing for high levels of demand for the new chip, according to people familiar with the matter, with the company set to start giving quotations in China as soon as Wednesday, the people said. Shipments are expected to start in the coming weeks and potential buyers include U.S. companies such as Dell Technologies Inc. for products they sell in China, these people said. A Dell spokesperson confirmed the company is evaluating Nvidia's A800 offering." [1]

1.  Business News: Nvidia Offers China a Sanctions-Proof Chip
Strumpf, Dan; Hao, Karen; Huang, Raffaele. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 09 Nov 2022: B.3.